Taken as a whole, it's liable to become soporific, but individual tracks are near perfect essays in understated melancholy. [May 2002, p.117]

Tortoise-pace strumming and a crippling shortage of choruses produce only torpor. [Aug 2002, p.131]

Once upon a time rock'n'roll was all about the sex you really shouldn't have. The Kills haven't forgotten. [Apr 2003, p.108]

Teeters between over-studied perfection and heavenly pop glory. [May 2004, p.101]

A fantastic record, full of wonder. [Aug. 2002, p.118]

His rudimentary songwriting skills and questionable quality control render this an exasperating experience. [Apr 2004, p.110]

A too-well-buried treasure. [Aug 2005, p.129]

Invitation Songs treads a well-worn path through dusty Americana, but with aplomb. [Mar 2008, p.100]

Something... is sumptuously produced art-rock, heavily influenced by Sonic Youth and Dinosaur, Jr., but presented with a fresh-faced optimism. [Sep 2008, p.141

Led by the strident vocals of the younger Klara, it is, however, the strength and surprising maturity of the pair's songwriting that makes The Big Black And The Blue such an impressive first effort, not least on the gorgeous Ghost Town. [Feb 2010, p. 105]

By the time Campbell opens penultimate boozer ballad Every Hour That Passes with "You can be the perfect bitch to my bastardness," you'll find it hard not to succumb. [Apr 2011, p.101]

At the end of Monoform, the first track on Leeds five-piece Vessels' second, album, you can pretty much hear the sound of impending collapse, as if the band has begun to implode in the mix.It's at once terrifying and exhilarating. [May 2011, p.127]

At 14 tracks long, it could have done with some editing: there are too many soggy R&B diversions. [Oct 2011, p.113]

New Blood again finds him working with a full orchestra, this time on selections from his own back catalogue. [Dec. 2011 p. 136]

It's not perfect but there's enough invention here for that not to matter. [Mar 2012, p.106]

Packed with songs of delicious but unsettling despair. [Apr 2012, p.98]

Even when the music flags, Smith sings his way through these hillbilly anthems and barroom laments with eerie, unwavering conviction. [Nov 2012, p.111]

They up the anthem count and resemble a lo-fi Dire Straits. [May 2013, p.112]

It's an ugly brute of a record too, but one you can't stop looking out. [Sep 2013, p.100]

It seemingly exists in another dimension entirely and by the end of the album you feel as if you've just emerged from a a nightclub in Atlantis. [Dec 2013, p.102]

A compelling record, in which the moments of sudden tenderness stand strongest. [Jul 2014, p.105]

Playland is better than its predecessor in pretty much every respect. The songs are better, the palette broader and there's a genuine sense of Marr hitting his stride as a solo artist. [Nov 2014, p.103]

Seasick Steve has settled into his stride with a seventh studio album that breaks no new ground but comfortably vaults the bar of his own setting. [Apr 2015, p.109]

His low-key, unhurried approach is unchanged. [May 2015, p.107]

As film music the score's consciously unobtrusive. [Apr 2015, p.94]

Curious, gorgeous and a little bit off its rocker. [Aug 2015, p.109]

This feels like a flying visit through an impromptu victory party. [Dec 2015, p.107]

The big indie-rock of Sleepy Hallow is beaten in the chirpy stakes only by the vaguely Afrobeat of This Little Sister while McIntyre's melancholy of old takes on Titanic proportions for the pleasing Why Do They Go So Soon. [May 2016, p.113]